Vikings

Description:

The adventures of a Ragnar Lothbrok: the greatest hero of his age. The series tells the saga of Ragnar's band of Viking brothers and his family as he rises to become King of the Viking tribes. As well as being a fearless warrior, Ragnar embodies the Norse traditions of devotion to the gods: legend has it that he was a direct descendant of Odin, the god of war and warriors.

User Thoughts:

Great entertainment

As usual on IMDb fictional dramas set in a particular period in history attract the bores that insist on bleating 'its not historically accurate'. Well just ignore them as this is a fantastic and exciting look at the relatively unexplored Viking world. In the same vein as other fictional historical dramas such as Spartacus or Rome the plot centres around a single character and their family. We then take a brief look into their world and are shown how dangerous a place the world was at this time. The show has a quality feel to it not like some of the more poorly made historical drama around today (sorry but Camelot was just awful!). The sets are impressive and believable and the direction and framing of each scene is obviously set by a skilled hand. The characters are all interesting and likable and the acting is top notch. The only negative I could draw on was that there could have been a bit more action in the first episode but what action there was was very well done. My advice to you, just watch and enjoy it for what it is and don't be out off by the history buffs. If we insisted on only ever watching historical drama that was 100% accurate I'm pretty sure we would be watching none at all. Great show, a solid nine out of ten.

Vikings

Goofs:

We know about 28 Goofs. Here comes one of them: Anachronisms King Aella could not have reigned in Northumbria at the time of the Lindisfarne raid, in 793. His reign begun around 863 and ended in 865.

Trivia:

There are 34> entries in the trivia list - like these:

The name "Ragnar" means "keeper of the fort."

The Norse people did not actually refer to themselves as Vikings as an ethnic or national identity. Viking was a profession and was the term for the act of raiding.

Ravens appear prominently in the series. Ravens had great cultural and religious importance in ancient Norse society, as they were seen as the agents of Odin who was said to own two ravens: Hugin (meaning "Thought") and Munin (Memory) who flew around and gathered information for him. One of Odin's many nicknames is Hrafnaguð, which means "Raven God". Vikings would carry banners depicting ravens. Ragnar's forces carry such banners. As such, the pagan characters in the series are likely to believe that when ravens appear, they are watched by Odin.

The women in the opening credits are supposed to be the 9 daughters of Rán, the personifications of the waves. The title sequence is supposed to show the separation of a viking from the living, with the ornaments of his life (gold and weapons) floating down around him. During the shot of the rolling thunder there is a single frame showing Hel Lokisdottir: the goddess of death.

The detail that the Norsemen were tattooed is not necessarily speculation. Eyewitness accounts from the Viking Age report that Vikings were, indeed, tattooed. This was also a feature of Celts and Slavs, supporting the idea that the practice was widespread in Pagan Europe.